Books: Keeping and Disposing

When CJ was staying we had a concerted clearout of my loft. I had already disposed of hundreds of vinyl LPs to the Oxfam Music Shop in Glasgow and now I had seven large (I have a trolley!) boxes of books for the Oxfam Book Shop in Glasgow's Byers Road as well. It's the University area so Oxfam and the charity shops have a big presence.  The local charity shops here are inundated with books and many of the books I was disposing of were not really local charity shop material anyway being, perhaps, more specialised or in the case of the complete works of Somerset Maugham (I had two sets) rather more likely to fetch a reasonable price for charity in a specialist bookshop.

The result is that my loft which has about 10 metres of bookshelf space which are now full as are the bookshelves in the living room. But the rest of the loft has no books all over the place impeding passage and impossible to find when needed.

A few of the ones I have kept are:

Clearing Out and Letting Go

For quite a few years I have been gradually getting rid of 'stuff'.  It started one time when CJ was here  a few years ago and we explored the loft (attic - room in the roof) where I had stored enough 'stuff' to sink a battleship. Most of it was things that I just didn't have room for in the main rooms: many shelves of books, pictures, all those glasses for the days when there would be 20 or 30 people in the house and garden for a BBQ (last one about 2006!). And then there's all the things in storage like my 'new' golf clubs (I haven't played for 15 years - perhaps more); dozens of very tidy plastic boxes, each the size of a shoebox, filled with telecom, electronic and computer bits and pieces and cables; travel cases; Really Useful Boxes full of papers and knickknacks; a spare kettle; a deep fat fryer (used once - perhaps twice) and so much more.  That's before I even start on the garage which is large enough for two cars but into which a bike would have difficulty fitting ('though to be fair that's not all my stuff').

The list I have just written purports to be from times past and since then carload after carload has gone to the charity shops (op shop/goodwill). The list is still exactly the same though and it makes me wonder how that can be.

I have, in fact, got rid of a lot of stuff from my study/gym and it is now devoid of a wall full of drawers and cubby holes and so on and the exercise machines have gone (well one's still in the garage). I now have a study/small dining room with views to die for and I go to the local gym which has infinitely more and better equipment and means that I'm not tempted to do other things around the house.

However I seem to have stalled.  Until, that is, Kate shared on Facebook 10 Decluttering Principles to Help Anyone Clear the Clutter. It was a guest post by the author of 365 Less Things - Reducing our stuff one day at a time [and I don't want any comments about less v fewer please]. It's a fascinating approach. 

I'm hooked.  If I live for 10 years and stick to it religiously I might see a difference. I might. Helen and Ian would be proud of me.